Monday December 28, 2009

Colorado College Summer Music Festival
Aaron Jay Kernis: Mozart En Route (or, A Little Traveling Music)
Stefan Hersh, violin; Phillip Ying, viola; Bion Tsang, cello (6/13/06) 4:32
Wolfgang Mozart: Divertimento in D Major, K. 131
Elizabeth Mann, flute; Robert Walters, oboe; Michael Kroth, bassoon; Michael Yopp, horn; Michael Thornton, horn; Kenneth Soper, horn; Scott Yoo, violin; violin; Steven Copes, violin; Mark Fewer, violin; Virginia Barron, viola; Phillip Ying, viola; Bion Tsang, cello; Susan Cahill, double bass (6/17/06) 34:45
Also, Charley anticipates the Denver Brass New Year's Eve show at the Newman Center.
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Michael Allen): Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (Little)
Howard Shore (arr. Jeremy Van Hoy): The Fellowship of the Ring Suite
"Epics in Brass" 8837 7-8 3:33 + 12:03


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Divertimento in D major, K.131
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto
IV. Allegretto
V. Menuetto
VI. Adagio
VII. Allegro molto

After his second trip to Italy, Mozart returned to Salzburg on December 15, 1771. The next day--as the toddler Beethoven celebrated his first birthday in Bonn--the Mozart's employer in Salzburg, the Archbishop Sigimund von Schrattenbach, died.
His successor, Hieronymous Joseph Franz von Paula, Count of Colloredo, Bishop of Burk, was elected, ``to the general surprise and grief of the populace,'' according to an account of the time. He would eventually prove especially loathesome to the Mozart family.
By June of 1772 Mozart wrote the Divertimento, K.131 for some unknown occasion in Salzburg, perhaps some festivity surrounding the installation of the new Archbishop, as Erik Smith suggests. W.J. Turner calls the work ``a wonderful piece testifying to the maturing genius of Mozart at sixteen.''
Smith has a note about the writing for horns in this Divertimento. Until the invention of the valve-horn in the 19th century, the notes of the horn were confined to its natural harmonics, although some solo players could extract chromatics by inserting a hand into the bell of the instrument. It was a tricky business, often resulting in numerous notes out of tune.
Smith writes, ``But in this Divertimento, young Mozart suddenly writes all four horn parts as though there were no limitations to the instrument at all!....Since he never repeated the experiment...we must conclude that his experiment was something of a disaster. His responsibility for the unexpected appearance of four horns, all bubbling away wildly out of tune, might have been the start of Mozart's disastrous relationship with the new Prince Archbishop.''
The work is scored for flute, oboe, bassoon, 4 horns and strings.